“The Night Shift” premieres May 27, “Undateable” premieres May 29, both on NBC. “Undateable” is a better comedy than “The Night Shift” is a drama.

One’s a souped-up “Grey’s Anatomy”-style medical drama about former Army docs accustomed to improvising surgeries in war zones, with an egotistical, maverick McDreamy at the center. The other’s an ensemble comedy about fear of relationships with a few geeky comedians surrounding Chris D’Elia (“Whitney”). Both are NBC series serving as spring-summer filler, adequate at what they do but not worth scheduling your life around.

While the drama includes flirty reparte mixed with ER banter, and features Macken hanging upside down performing a dangerous medical maneuver on a boy’s skull through the sunroof of a car, the comedy sticks to familiar bar and singles’ apartment territory, with unsure single guys mustering the courage to speak to a potential date. The opportunity for what the networks call “relatable,” heartwarming growth experience and surrogate workplace family is everywhere. Bars and ERs have worked for the network before, but these particular efforts deserve to be fleeting. The ghosts of “Cheers” (NBC 1982-93) and “ER” (NBC 1994-2009) are still with us.

NBC”S Jekyll-and-Hyde doctor show, “Do No Harm,” was cancelled Friday, put out of its misery after just two episodes. That’s fast, but there have been faster failures.

Here’s a partial list of other quickly vanishing network series, only one of which I’d say deserved a longer chance to prove itself:

“Made in Jersey” dumped after two episodes.
“The Playboy Club,” expelled after three episodes.
Steven Bochco’s “Public Morals,” yanked after a single episode in 1996.
“Emily’s Reasons Why Not” checked off after one episode (that title was asking for cancellation).
“Anchorwoman” fired after one episode.
“Viva Laughlin,” CBS put a sock in the musical drama after two episodes.
“Lone Star,” the Fox soap about a Texas con man, went dark after two episodes in 2010 –even though James Wolk was immensely watchable and the story deserved network patience. This is the only one on the list that got a raw deal.
“The Paul Reiser Show,” pulled after two episodes.

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.